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Dealership owner lends car to Publix employee after SUV vandalized
The owner of Daytona Nissan and Infiniti says he shops at a local Publix every week and considers the store close to home. So when he learned that one of its employees — a mother of four — had her SUV mistakenly vandalized in an alleged revenge plot, he said he knew he had to help.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A car dealership in Daytona Beach is stepping in to help a woman whose car was damaged in an alleged revenge plot gone wrong.
Florida man accused of smashing innocent woman's car with hammer in alleged revenge plot. (Source: Body Camera footage from Volusia County Sheriff's Office).
What we know:
The owner of the Daytona Nissan Infiniti dealership is helping a woman after multiple windows and her car's radio were destroyed when a man hit took a hammer to it. The woman is a mother of four, deputies said.
Authorities identified Justin Allen, 37, saying he broke into a Publix employee's vehicle in Ormond-by-the-sea. Deputies said Allen smashed the vehicle with a hammer.
Florida man accused of smashing innocent woman's car with hammer in alleged revenge plot. (Source: Body Camera footage from Volusia County Sheriff's Office).
The owner of the car dealership shops this Publix location, saying everyone that works there is kind.
When he found out about the incident, he told FOX 35's Alexus Cleavenger he knew he needed to do something, so the family wouldn't go without a car.
"She's without a car and having to ask her mom to take her to work, and we all know that burden," Zach Yeomans, General Manager at Daytona Nissan Infiniti, told Cleavenger. The woman was sent a car at no cost.
"We are going to get her vehicle sorted out at a body shop and told her, ‘Drive it as long as you need,’" Yeomans said.
Florida man accused of smashing innocent woman's car with hammer in alleged revenge plot. (Source: Body Camera footage from Volusia County Sheriff's Office).
Distraught employee; over $10,000 in damages
When deputies located the vehicle's owner, she was distraught at the damage done to her car, the affidavit said. The owner told deputies she didn't know Allen.
It's estimated Allen caused about $17,000 in damages.
Allen told deputies the vehicle was his, but later said it was his girlfriend's car, who had robbed him.
Allen – a contractor – had tools including the hammer in his own car, the affidavit said. He said he smashed the driver's and passenger's side windows of his "girlfriend's car." However, after running the license plate, deputies determined the car didn't belong to Allen's ex.
Damage to the vehicle included: a broken front driver's side window, a broken passenger's side window, a dented driver's side door, a dented passenger side door and a damaged car radio.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from FOX 35's Alexus Cleavenger.